California’s Master Plan for higher education guarantees a place in college for every eligible student. TICAS seeks to maximize the effectiveness of this promise by ensuring students have the financial aid and student services they need to succeed, particularly at California’s community colleges.

College InSight is a unique web site for higher education data and research. The site is a valuable resource for anyone interested in college affordability, student debt, economic and racial diversity, student success, and other important issues in higher education.

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In a volume edited by The Institute for College Access & Success, researchers explore in detail ways that California’s policymakers might consider changing the design and delivery of state financial aid to create a more affordable, equitable path to and through California’s public higher education system.

New TICAS brief explores how the punitive consequences of defaulting on student debt can perversely make it harder for struggling borrowers to return to school and regain their financial footing, even though graduating from college will make it easier to repay their loans. The brief includes recommendations for how policymakers and colleges can help borrowers better prevent and get out of default.

New data show that the average student debt for college graduates continues to climb but at a slower pace, according to a report released by the Institute for College Access & Success. Nationally, about two in three (65 percent) college seniors who graduated from public and private nonprofit colleges in 2017 had student loan debt. These borrowers owed an average of $28,650, 1 percent higher than the 2016 average.

Three million Americans now go to college entirely online, including 1.3 million enrolled at a school online in a state other than where they live. This represents an important new choice for students, but also a new challenge for states seeking to ensure the quality of the education provided to residents. This report outlines improvements to federal rules and ways states can collaborate to expand college opportunity without putting students at risk of unmanageable debt from poor-quality online colleges.

A new TICAS report documents clear agreement among higher education experts that college affordability challenges have a wide range of negative implications for California students, and low-income and underrepresented students in particular.